324 
GEN 
heroes; but peace is rarely the ornament of their feverifli 
exiftence.’ 
‘ Men of genius are often reverenced only where they 
are known by their writings. In the romance of life 
they are divinities, in its hiftory they are men. From 
errors of the mind, and derelidlions of the heart, they 
may not be exempt; thefe are perceived by their ac¬ 
quaintance, who can often difcern only thefe qualities. 
The defefts of great men are often the confolation of 
dunces. For their foibles it appears more difficult to 
account than for tlieir vices; for a violent paflion de¬ 
pends on its dire6tion to become either excellence or 
depravity; but why their exalted mind fliould not pre- 
ferve them from the imbecilities of fools, appears a 
mere caprice of nattire. A curious lift may be formed of 
“ Fears of the brave and follies of the wife.” Johnfon. 
‘ But it is alfo neceffary to acknowledge, that men of 
genius are often unjuftly reproached with foibles. The 
fports of a vacant mind are mifunderftood as follies. 
The fimplicity of truth may appear vanity, and the con- 
fcioufnefs of fuperiority, envy. Nothing is more ufual 
than our furprife at feme great writer or artift contemn, 
ing the labours of another, whom the public cherifh 
with equal approbation. We place it to the account 
of his envy ; but perhaps this opinion is erroneous, and 
claims a concife iiiveftigation. Every fuperior writer 
has a manner of his own, with which he has been long 
converfant, and too often inclines to judge of the merit 
of a performance by the degree it attains of his favourite 
manner. He errs, becaufe impartial men of tafte are ad- 
didted to no manner, but love whatever is exquifite. 
We often fee readers draw their degree of comparative 
merit from the manner of their favourite author ; an au¬ 
thor does the fame; that is, he draws it from himfelf. 
Such a partial ftasidard of tafte is erroneous; but it is 
more excufable in the author than in the reader. 
‘ This obfervation will ferve to explain feveral cu¬ 
rious phenomena in literature. The witty Cowley de- 
fpifed the natural Chaucer ; the claflical Boileau, the 
rough fublimity of Crebillon; the forcible Corneille, 
the tender Racine; the aftedled Marivaux, the familiar 
Moliere; the artificial Gray, the fimple Shenftone. 
Each judged alike of the genius of his competitor by 
that peculiar manner he had long formed for himfelf. 
In a free converfation they might liave contemned each 
other; and a dunce, who had liftened without tafte or 
underftanding, if he had been a haberdafher in anecdotes, 
would havq, haftened to repofit in his rvarehoufe of liter¬ 
ary falfities, a long declamation on the vanity and envy 
of thefe great men.^— 
‘ It has long been acknowledged that every rvork of 
merit, the more it is examined, the greater the merit 
will appear. The mod mafterly touches, and the re- 
ferved graces, which form the pride of the artift, are 
not obfervable till after a familiar and conftant medita¬ 
tion. What is moft refined is leaft obvious; and to fome 
muft remain unperceived for ever.—But afeending from 
thefe elaborate ftrokes in compofition, to the views and 
defigns of an author, the more profound and extenfive 
thefe are, the more they elude the reader’s apprehenfion. 
The happieft writers are compelled to fee fome of their 
moft magnificent ideas float along the immenfity of mind, 
beyond the feeble grafp of expreftion. Compare the 
genius of the author with tliat of the reader; how co¬ 
pious and overflowing is the mind of the one to the 
other ; how more fenfibly alive to a variety of exquifite 
ftrokes which the other has not yet perceived ; the au¬ 
thor is familiar with every part, and the reader has but 
a vague notion of the whole. How many noble concep¬ 
tions of Roufleau are not yet maftcred! How many 
profound refledtions of Montefquieu are not yet under- 
ftood ! How many fubtile leflbns are yet in Locke, which 
so preceptor can teach ! 
■* Confcioufnefs.of merit charadlerifes men of genius; 
GEN 
but it is to be lamented that the illufions of felf-love are 
not diftinguifliable from the realities of confeioufnefs. 
If we were to take from fome men their pride of exult- 
ation, we annihilate the germ of their excellence. The 
perfuafion of a juft pofterity fmoothed the lleeplefs pil- 
Io%v, and fpread a funfhine in the folitude, of Bacon, 
Montefquieu, and Newton; of Cervantes, Gray, and 
Milton. Men of genius anticipate tlieir contemporaries, 
and know they are fuch, long before the tardy confent 
of the public.’-—Yet, after all, we muft conclude with 
Hermogenes, that "genius is like a comet,;, neither its- 
periods nor its effedls are known.” 
GEN'LIS, a town of France, in the department of the 
Aifne, and chief place of a canton, in the diftrift of 
Chauny : three miles north of Chauny, and tivelve fouth 
of St. Quintin. 
GENNA'DIUS, patriarch of Conftantinople in the 
fifth century. He was firft ordained a prefoyter of the 
Conftantinopolitan church, from which fituation he was. 
eledted to the patriarchal dignity in 458, on the death 
of Anatolius. He employed himfelf with great Zealand 
difintereftednefs in corredling the relaxed ftate of difei- 
pline which prevailed in his diocefe. In a council of 
feventy-three bifliops which he held in the year 459, he 
procured the pafting of a canon againlt fimoniacal ordin¬ 
ations ; and by means of Marcian, whom he appointed 
fteward of his diocefe, eftabliflied the difinterefted regu¬ 
lation, that the oblations made in the refpedlive cluirclies, 
which it had been cuftomary to claim for the patriarch’s 
treafury, (hould thenceforward belong to the officiating 
clergy. He died 111471. Gennadius, the prieft of Mar- 
feilles, places him among the celebrated ecclefiaftical 
writers, and paOes encomiums on the quicknefs of his 
parts, the extent of liis learning, and the elegance of his 
ftyle. He was the author of A Commentary upon the 
Book of Daniel; and of feveral Homilies, and other 
works, Thefe writings, however, are no longer extant; 
and no remains of them have reached modern times, ex¬ 
cepting A Synodal Epiftleagainft Simony, inferted in the 
fourth volume of the Collect. Concil. and two frag¬ 
ments, one from a letter or treatife agaiiift the anathe¬ 
mas of Cyril of Alexandria, quoted by Facundus bifliop 
of Hermiana, lib, ii. cap. 4. and the other from a trea¬ 
tife addreffed to Parthenius, and quoted by Leontius in 
his common-places concerning the origin of the foul. 
GENNA'DIUS, patriarch of Conftantinople in the 
fifteenth century, whofeoriginal name was George Scola- 
rius, which he changed upon embracing the ecclefiaftical 
life. His abilities recommended him to employment at 
court, where he rofe to the office of fecrctary to the em¬ 
peror John Palffiologus, and was afterwards appointed 
chief judge of the Greeks, In 1438 he accompanied the 
emperor into Italy, to meet the council of Florence, for 
the purpofe of bringing about an union between the 
Greek and Latin churches. After the return of Schola- 
rius to Conftantinople, he united with Mark of Ephefus 
in ftrongly oppofing the reception of thofe terms of 
union to which the emperor had acceded, both by his 
perfonal influence and by his writings. He died about 
the year 1460; and was the author of An Explanation 
of tire Chriftian Faith, delivered before the Turkiih 
Emperor Mahomet, inferted in Greek, Latin, and 
Turkifti, in Crufius’s Turco-Gracia, lib. ii. and in 
Greekand Latin in David Chytrxus,’% DeStatu Ecclejiarum 
in Grcecia. A book containing Articles of Faith, addreii'ed 
to the fame emperor, in the form of a dialogue between 
a Turk and the patriarch, which is inferted in the Hx- 
refiologia, publiflied at Bafil 1556, and leparately edited 
at Helmftadt, 1611, 8vo. A Treatife concerning Pre- 
deftination, firft edited in Greek by David Ha;chelius, 
1593, 4to. and afterwards in Greek and Latin by Fre¬ 
deric Morell, and fubjoined to the Appendix to the 
Works of St. Bafil, Paris, 1618, &c. A Treatife on the 
Doflrine of the Trinity, publiftied in Greek and Latin 
by Aldus Manutius, 1501, 4to. and a vaft number of 
letters. 
